PokéROMs were a weird shape, like oval but with straight sides? They had a promotion in 2000 where they came free as a cereal prize iirc.

grey pill so I can HONK SHOO while a feather is kept afloat by my own breath

My preferred hacks are for games that are N64 era or older.

The OOT mods that make use of the zelda 64 decomp project are pretty impressive e.g. Ultimate Trial and Indigo: Chapter 2. The Sealed Palace and The Missing Link are also quite fun.

I’m also quite fond of visual and gameplay improvements to older games (NES + GB/GBC) and Romhacking dot net has some I’ve kept my eye on for a while.

Robocop Texas Edition uses graphics based on the original arcade version, Castlevania 3: Aperture of Corruption is a complete overhaul of the original NES game, and Street Fighter 2 Deluxe and Sonic 5 improvement are both romhacks of bootlegs for the NES that improve various graphics and fix gameplay issues.

Both Pokemon Polished Crystal and Pokemon Red Plus Plus feature updated graphics (similar to gen 3), fixed gameplay, new mechanics, and various QoL updates.

From the wording, they’re banning short ninja blades / ninjatou specifically, but they’ve said nothing about other weapons like shuriken, kunai, naginata, yari, or any samurai sword (uchigatana, wakizashi, tantou etc.)

I vaguely remember reading about how, at the time, one of the most popular apps on the Koryolink smartphones was a strategy rpg video game based on Boy General (DPRK animation that’s super popular with people of all ages). You can also get smartphone games from stores that have things like puzzle games, virtual pets, and even clones of certain western games like angry birds. There’s also a bunch of arcades and entertainment centers in Pyongyang that were funded by Kim Jong Un (along with his funding of things like water parks, amusement parks, skating rinks, etc.) more info here: https://www.youngpioneertours.com/video-games-in-north-korea/

Bolognese

I recently saw a mini-documentary about the segmented apartments in Hong Kong, and how because now they’re banned, some of them have been made into mini-museums as a kind of walk-through PSA about the horrific conditions people were forced to live in only 20 years ago. As interesting as things like that and the Kowloon Walled City are from a historical point of view, I’m glad that the government turned it into a park and people have better living conditions now.

I’m more of a fan of Socialist Classicism myself

In some cultures, yes, many GNC gay people would be considered part of a ‘third gender’, and this was also the case in a lot of the West before modern separatist movements came into the picture. There’s still an overlap today between he/him lesbians, stone butch, drag kings, and transmasc communities, just like there are overlaps between effeminate she/her gays, drag queens, and transfemme communities.

Also, non-binary people can physically transition through various surgeries and hormones, in addition to social transitioning. It’s often very difficult because much of western society doesn’t recognize their existence, so NB people are often forced to choose between the ‘socially acceptable gender’ of either male or female to live as legally, which can in turn lead to major dysphoria.

Exactly. So you agree that it’s impossible to earn and save a billion dollars just by working hard. It requires either exploiting your workers by stealing their surplus value, or by using the market by short-selling, using hedge funds, trading through illegal offshore numbered accounts, derivatives, etc.

The average US worker has a salary of $46,800 (in 2018) before taxes. Assuming they saved everything and spent nothing, it would take over 5 years for them to make 250k. Again, this is before taxes, and without spending anything. For the vast majority of people, 250k is a lot of money.

Assuming they saved everything and spent nothing, the average worker would have to work the entire length of all human history in order to earn a billion dollars. If they were to make as much money as Jeff Bezos, they would have to work for 2.8 million years.

Assuming you earned a million dollars every year, it would take 1000 years to earn your first billion dollars.

It’s not possible to become a billionaire simply through working, as humans do not live that long.

Again, if you have evidence to the contrary, you can contact the author of the research paper, or you can submit your findings to a peer-reviewed academic journal. Here are some further academic sources that also support the claim that the Nazi economy was heavily engaged in privatization, and some relevant quotes:

“After the 1931 banking crisis the survival of the four German great banks was safeguarded only by a huge injection of taxpayers’ money. In return, the great banks were partly nationalized and the two worst affected, the Dresdner Bank and the Danat Bank, were merged. Re-privatization was, however, started only a few years later and finalized under Nazi rule in 1937.”

Source: After the Crisis: Nationalisation and re-privatization of the German great banks 1931–1937

“There occurred hardly any nationalizations of private firms during the Third Reich. In addition, there were few enterprises newly created as state-run firms.”

“The foregoing discussion is clearly corroborated by an analysis of Nazi intentions. Available sources make perfectly clear that the Nazi regime did not want at all a German economy with public ownership of many or all enterprises. Therefore it generally had no intention whatsoever of nationalizing private firms or creating state firms. On the contrary the re-privatization of enterprises was furthered wherever possible.”

Source: The Role of Private Property in the Nazi Economy: The Case of Industry

Thanks for the reply; I’m not all that well-versed on the subject, so I definitely need to read more about it!

Wasn’t fascist corporatism basically inspired by functionalism? I vaguely remember reading about how Durkheim rejected materialism and class conflict in favor of a form of corporatism.

Correct. Because the Nazi economy was called ‘privatization.’

If you wish to argue against the author’s findings, you can contact gbel@ub.edu.

“In return for business assistance, the Nazis hastened to give evidence of their good will by restoring to private capitalism a number of monopolies held or controlled by the state."

In other words, the Nazis specifically took certain businesses that were formerly nationalized and then privatized them.

For further reading:

• Retrospectives The Coining of “Privatization” and Germany’s National Socialist Party - Article from Journal of Economic Perspectives
• Against the mainstream: Nazi privatization in 1930s Germany - Research paper from the University of Barcelona